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Jambo!
This is day two of our visit in Kenya. It is hot as temperatures reached 29C and I know that it is particularly cold in the UK so I feel very lucky !
First thing today Peter and I went to the Kenyan coffee auction, where all the Kenyan coffee gets traded on a weekly basis. It gives me the opportunity to understand better the coffee trading business. One week before the auction each potential buyer is sent a sample of every single lot that will be put on sale. The buyers "cup" the samples (ie taste them) and based on their flavour, aroma and body give them a rating and decide what kind of price they would be ready to pay for this lot at the auction. Every lot is defined by its quantities in kg, its grade (from C to AA) and its origin. At the auction everything then happens very quickly.
We then make our way to the Ngaita wet mill, which is the newest one as part of the Ndumberi cooperative. We are met there by Raymond Gitau, the cooperative chairman, who gives us a tour of the mill. Again we can see there where the Four Square investment has been used in building clean and efficient soaking and fermentation tanks and installing 10 brand new drying tables. All this means that the cooperative can produce better quality coffee. Finally we make our way to the last and 3rd wet mill, called Riabai. This is the biggest one and the cooperative owns quite a lot of land there where they grow their own coffee trees. We also look at the land which has been assigned to the proposed dispensary and how accessible it is (very near a crossroad) to the local community. Finally we learn that thanks to the work that has been done at the cooperative and with the farmers, they have now been able to increase their yearly crop from 1-2kg to 5-7kg of coffee cherries on average per farm. This is a great achievement but there is still potential (it could go up to 30kg per farm!). We say goodbye to Ndumberi after congratulating them again on how much they have achieved in one year and thanking them for their very warm welcome.
We then went to the Sangana office for a "cupping" session and to wrap up our visit in Kenya. I had a go at tasting the samples from Tanzania and Kenya but must admit I will need a lot more experience to finally become an expert in this area !
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Kenya to start the next leg of our journey and travel to Malawi for our first hands-on experience in the tea industry !
Karibu!
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